Dead­line nears for so­lar panel tar­iffs

HOME­OWN­ERS have just over 60 days left to se­cure an eye-catch­ing re­turn on in­vest­ment if they go ahead with a so­lar PV in­stal­la­tions.

From July 1, the Gov­ern­ment is cut­ting the feed-in-tar­iff sub­si­dies for do­mes­tic schemes of less than 4kw from the cur­rent 21p to an ex­pected rate of 15.7p. This may be as low as 13.6p but no higher than 16.5p.

Un­der the present FIT rate, the re­turn on in­vest­ment is more than 10 per cent and is guar­an­teed for 25 years. How­ever, when the rate re­duces to 15.7p – or the 13.6p rate if de­ploy­ment in March and April is be­tween 150 and 200MW – the po­ten­tial re­turn on in­vest­ment will drop to be­tween 4 and 6 per cent, say re­new­able en­ergy com­pany Eco En­vi­ron­ments.